The History of Mathematics archive was an outgrowth of Mathematical MacTutor system, a HyperCard database by the same authors,[1] which won them the European Academic Software award in 1994. In the same year, they founded their web site. As of 2015[update] it has biographies on over 2800 mathematicians and scientists.[2]

In 2015, O'Connor and Robertson won the Hirst Prize of the London Mathematical Society for their work.[2][3] The citation for the Hirst Prize calls the archive "the most widely used and influential web-based resource in history of mathematics".[3]